And yet, one of the many ironies of the 2016 election is
that Clinton’s marital status and gender may define her place in history – as
former first lady and first woman presidential nominee of a major political
party.

She won the popular vote, but because she did not win
the White House, she will always be seen as the wife of a president. Because of
the Electoral College, she will never have the chance to prove herself as
president.

For all her subsequent accomplishments, marrying Bill
Clinton was Hillary’s best career move, her ticket to the national stage.

As his wife, she became first lady of Arkansas and the
first lady of the United States.

She, an ambitious Yale law graduate surely would have succeeded
in life on her own, but we’ll never know if she would have become a U.S.
senator, secretary of state and a presidential contender – twice – had she not first
risen to prominence in the role of Mrs. In this way, the Hillary Clinton story
is more 20th century than 21st.

The Clintons’ marriage,
like most relationships, is unfathomable to those on the outside. When her husband was accused of womanizing during his bid for
the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton proved her loyalty
by dutifully standing by her man -- even as she denied she was doing so.

She later showed her strength by enduring the public humiliation
of his philandering in the White House.

So it seems a particularly cruel twist of fate that,
after she built her own president-ready resume with Senate and State Department
posts, her husband may be to blame for Donald Trump’s decision to enter the 2016
presidential race.

Strange as it now seems, both Clintons formerly were friends
with Trump, who donated to the Clinton Foundation and played golf with Bill.

Bill Clinton called his pal Trump in May 2015 and
encouraged him to play a larger role in Republican politics, The Washington
Post reported.

What exactly was said in the private phone
conversation isn’t known. A few weeks later, Trump glided down the escalator at
Trump Tower and began knocking off GOP presidential contenders, one by one.

And so, Hillary Clinton who in 2008 lost to a Democratic
outsider promising change, lost Tuesday to a Republican outsider promising
change.

As the 2016 campaign tightened at the end, Clinton relied
more and more on President Obama and his popular wife, Michelle, to make the
case for her. Days before the election, the president conversationally asked
men about their resistance to a woman president.

“I just want to say to the guys out there . . . there’s
a reason why we haven’t had a woman president before . . . I want every man out
there who’s voting to kind of look inside yourself and ask yourself, if you’re
having problems with this stuff, how much of it is that we’re just not used to
it?” Obama said at a Clinton rally in Columbus, Ohio.

“So that, like, when a
guy is ambitious and out in the public arena and working hard, well, that’s OK.
But when a woman suddenly does it, suddenly you’re all like, well, why is she
doing that?” he said.

But Trump also won the votes of white women 53 percent
to Clinton’s 43 percent.

When Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate, introduced her
at her concession speech Wednesday, he said: “She has made history. In a nation
that is good at so many things, but that has made it uniquely difficult for
women to be elected to federal office, she became the first major party nominee
as a woman to be president and last night won the popular vote of Americans for
the president.”

Minutes later, Clinton, with her husband standing
behind her, said:

“I know we have still not shattered that highest and
hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will, and hopefully sooner than we
might think right now.”

2 comments:

Marsha, this is an absolutely brilliant analysis of Hillary's efforts to be elected. I did not know about Clinton advising Trump to enter politics. Bet he wishes he hadn't now. I am just sick about Trump's win, but pray that the Democrats and those of like mind can come back from this debacle even stronger. We have to, for all our sakes. Thank you for throwing a light on this matter.